The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organizations (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) today announced they are increasing their efforts to promote private investments in agricultural businesses in the southern and eastern Mediterranean region.

The support will come through a series of new technical assistance projects that seek to develop policies and legal frameworks that create a favourable investment climate and foster private sector involvement in agribusiness in countries like Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

The projects, produced by FAO in conjunction with EBRD, will include policy discussions between government and private agricultural businesses and will address issues such as improvement of rural infrastructure, increasing food safety standards and developing local skills through adequate training.

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Lubango — The Portuguese minister of Agriculture, Environment, Seas and Territory Development, Assunção Frestas, defended on Tuesday an urgent creation of cold-storage networks for the development of agriculture in Angola.

Speaking to ANGOP, in Lubango City, southern Huila Province, she said that the mentioned infrastructures are fundamental for the development of agriculture and cattle-breeding, as there would be no high risks of losing the production, as well as the products reach customers in good condition.

“Not only in Huila, but all over the world, 40 per cent of the products that are produced do not reach the customers, they either stay on the ground or are deteriorated between the ground and the final consumer”, she said.

Source: AngolaPress

The joint venture partnership between one of Nigeria’s long standing conglomerates, Chellarams Plc, and Woolworths of South Africa, after a thorough assessment of the Nigerian market, has resulted in the establishment of Woolworths biggest retail outlet in Ikeja, Lagos worth over N200 million ($1,270,000 approx US).

Woolworths now plans to open another 30 stores in various parts of the country.

Woolworths Executive, John Fraser said “there is strong market in Nigeria. We are starting in Lagos with plans for rapid expansion in the country. We are excited to come to Nigeria, though there are infrastructure issues but the market is here.”

Source: www.businessdayonline.com

Freshplaza.com reports that Vietnam and Cambodia are now allowing imports of fresh produce from South Africa. The Vietnamese agricultural department announced this week that fruit imports from South Africa were compliant.

The new export markets have been welcomed by exporters who are finding traditional markets increasingly challenging.

Crontje Scheepers from Cape Citrus said, “Every new market which opens is very interesting for companies as well as for South Africa as a whole.”

The clearance unfortunately will come too late for this season’s grape exports as packing is almost complete on the desired varieties. But providing the phytosanitary demands are met it could be a promising option for next season for various fruit exports.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has been urged to carry out quality inspections on all shipments of agricultural exports to ensure that they are not rejected for access onto the European Union markets.

Nigeria’s representative of Research Into Use (RIU), a programme sponsored by the United Kingdom, Dr Utang Ugbe, said importers rejection of agro produce from Nigeria is supported by genuine quality problems.

He said that the government needed to work with growers to address quality issues and introduce procedures and standards as the result of current problems was a loss of profitability to the national economy.

He pointed out that exports to the EU had grown substantially in recent years, but that the country was still missing out on reaching its potential due to the failure to produce consistent standards of high quality foods.

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